We are glad to announce the release of new public build, now in version 01.082.009. This also means that we are finishing the ALPHA and we are weeks, maybe just days, from the BETA!

This new public build has three playable missions, although players may experience glitches and minor bugs, but they should be able to finish them and it is also possible they will get even further. The first mission is almost final beside the second and third which are missing voice overs. The campaign will have 31 story missions, every mission should take 30 minutes to finish and that brings us to almost 15 hours of gameplay! Plus unlimited amount of time in free-roaming mode, in-game editor and multiplayer.

Co-op – it’s in the game, you can play with your friends, but it is still bugy and non-host players will have unsynchronized objectives

Funny glitch – if you lock doors on your mother ship before you leave a sector, they stay locked also after your arrival to a new sector – but since you get respawn outside of your mother ship, you can’t get inside. You are locked out :-)

So, where exactly is the free roaming, and the merchants and such? Or are those only for multiplayer currently?

Because I thought that we would at least have a bit of sandbox in alpha... I also have no idea what to do, every time I go somewhere all I find are people that like making Swiss cheese especially out of me.

I'm wondering if there will be any pre-SM3 support for older cards that can still do normal mapping, but not with SM3/nVidia/cuda gfx gpu functions exclusively, possibly using DX9c SM2 functions instead?Like my ATI RADEON x800PRO/GTO 256MB card that only has minimal SM3 support.

As I am still unable to run your awesome game at this time. :(Due to this error: D3DERR_INVALIDCALL: Invalid call (-2005530516)Which seems to be a common error with DirectX3D9/SlimDX based games.

What I can't figure out though, is why the game would make an invalidcall? - unless it is misinterpreting my card specs?As I have installed the lasted drivers for my card already.

On another point, I'm very curious why the updater seems to be downloadingthe whole installer each time it updates, instead of just changed content?

QUOTE: Optimizations – now the game should run better even on weaker PCsDoes that include slightly weaker GFX Cards?

To answer your question directly, I wouldn't be able to update them anymore than they are - unless I updated my system to Vista or Win7, which is ultimately what I may have to do to be able to run your game.

As you can see in my last post, I have already updated my drivers to the latest compatible but unsigned Catalyst version 10.2 / driver version 6.14.10.6925 - using AMD's driver support page for my card: http://tinyurl.com/8wonvalI also updated to .Net4.5 to no avail, seems your game just doesn't like my system! :P

The only thing I see that may cause some trouble, would be the system info has my card as:Name & Adapter Description 'RADEON X800 PRO/GTO Secondary'Instead of the base name or 'primary'.And since my secondary isn't even connected, I have no idea why it would set it up like that.So, there's that - and the fact the drivers aren't signed by MS yet.

And in the resolved issues section for the latest release of the ATI Catalyst™ Software/Drivers for Windows XP/SP3/NET3, it says nothing specific to my card.

I managed to get a copy of the first beta release of MW to see if it would run at all, but I'm curious to know if there is any special command-line options that can be used to force the game to use only SM2 functions? Like -FORCESM2 or other? Similar to what the UDK was using in earlier versions. Which may or may not solve my problem.

And what about OpenGL options for running your game? As I often use them instead of DX when problems arise trying to run a game.

Contributing:I'd love to!, but alas I still can't run the game - so I'd only be able to help with design/concepts and content/assets like models and textures, but I wouldn't be able to play the game with what I make! :(Oh, well - you can't always have a cake AND eat it! :P

BTW: I was going to put that last paragraph in the comments on the MWFD page but it requires creating a new facebook account, and logging into my yahoo account from your site doesn't seem too kosher either - especially when I was already logged in to my yahoo email account.

Shouldn't that be; 'the more QP you receive. Be 'our' help in the field of marketing/promotion' ?

I think you should consider the context... but yea, maybe it could use some rewording... such as:Changes in bold (or [b] [/b] tags, if not supported:

The more you help us make Miner Wars be a greater game, the more QP you receive – [b]whether your help[/b] be in the field of marketing/promotion, beta-testing, graphic art or any other valuable contribution.

QUOTE: I'm curious to know if there is any special command-line options that can be used to force the game to use only SM2 functions? Like -FORCESM2 or other? Similar to what the UDK was using in earlier versions. Which may or may not solve my problem.

Is there going to be ANY commandline options to enable lesser SM3 cards to run your game?

I purchased my "'ATIx800Pro GTO 256MB' because it has SM3-TC_NormalmapBC5/BC5(3Dc/DXN) using DX9c/d support" in order to be able to use SM3 enabled applications & games, but your game and the UDK doesn't seem to be using it very much - simply because many shaders exceed it's 32 instruction shader cache limit.